Montana State engineering seniors to showcase capstone projects at design fair

BOZEMAN - Montana State University engineering students will showcase their senior projects Thursday, May 2, on campus in Norm Asbjornson Hall during the biannual Design Fair. The all-ages event is free and open to the public.

The work of about 200 students on more than 70 projects will be on display inside MSU's Norm Asbjornson Hall in two-hour blocks from 9 to 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. Posters can be found in Inspiration Hall on the second floor and along the first floor's Innovation Alley.

The Design Fair is a chance for MSU students and the public to see the final products of the capstone projects that all seniors in the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering complete as a requirement to earn their degrees. Many of the projects are sponsored by private industry, and others are sponsored by faculty to support their academic research.

"We call these 'capstone projects' because they're the finishing piece on their training to be engineers," said Wataru Nakagawa, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. He coordinates the event with Craig Shankwitz, an assistant teaching professor of mechanical and industrial engineering. "They work on a real project where we don't know how it's going to turn out or what the solution will be. It's challenging because it's so different. We coach them to understand their problem and come up with an appropriate engineering solution, and then test and verify with data that it does in fact do what it is supposed to do."

This year's projects include a "smart" fish net designed to the help track tagged fish in rivers by reading an RFID chip, and another that explores algae as a potential biofuel for future aerospace transportation that is less environmentally harmful than current fuels.

Paid parking is available in the parking garage adjacent to NAH.

More information about the Design Fair is available at coe.montana.edu/capstone/designfair.